Admissions Tests (SAT/ACT, TOFEL/IELTS

ADMISSION TESTS

When applying to college, test scores may be the first thing to come to mind (even though they are rarely the first thing that an admission officer will look at). As explained earlier, test scores are the primary acceptance factor for European universities. For students applying to the US, however, the answer to how important are the SATs or ACTs is a complex one. If you ask an admissions officer from a selective university if scores are the most important part of an application, the answer will be no. Instead, you hear, test scores are one factor, but grades and the strength of course work are more important. Spend more time making good grades and being involved in extracurricular and community activities than worrying about your ACT orSAT scores. Scores are overemphasized. However, when that same admissions officer begins wading through stacks of applications to decide what percent to admit or reject, test scores do become important. Many applicants will have roughly the same grades, the same positive recommendations, and the same well-written essays. In these cases, a high ACT or SAT can break the ties. Regardless of what an admission officer may say, most still put considerable weight on scores. While many believe there are better ways to measure college preparation (which there are), they still see the ACT or SAT as a measure of predicted ability. The more selective the university, the more important the scores seem to become. Scores are probably more important than admission officers say, but less important than you think. The following is an explanation of the major entrance exams.

PSAT/NMSQT

The Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test also referred to as the PSAT, is given to all LCS juniors each October. The test follows the SAT format and can give an early indication of likely SAT scores. Test scores range from 20 to 1520 on the PSAT slightly different than the 400 to 1000 new SAT scale. Do not get upset about low practice test scores. LCS purposely requires all studentsto take the PSAT and pre-ACT as practice for taking a college entrance exam. Most students earn lower PSAT scores than SAT scores. Colleges will never receive your PSAT scores only you, your parents and the LCS counseling office will be able to view them PSAT NMSQT scores are used by the US- based National Merit Scholarship Corpora- tion to determine who is eligible to enter the National Merit Scholar Competition. US citizens who perform exceptionally well on the PSAT NMSQT are identified as Co - mended or National Merit Semi-Finalists. Semi-Finalists with extremely highSAT scores, good grades, and positive recommendations may be named as National Merit Scholars and could win scholarships.

The SAT

Most colleges require SAT scores because the results are the only common comparison they have between students coming from a variety of schools and backgrounds. For students going to the US or Canada, SAT (or the similar ACT test) are required by almost all universities. Non-US students applying from schools such as LCS may be required to submit SAT scores if applying to universities in their home countries.

Prior to May 2009, students who took the SAT more than once had to send all scores to colleges. Score Choice was announced by the College Board in 2008 with the goal of reducing student stress. Score Choice permits students to send only their best overall score from a given test date. So students can take tests repeatedly with no apparent penalty. There’s one catch. Colleges can opt out of Score Choice and require applicants to report every SAT score. Currently Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Pomona, and the University of Pennsylvania are just a few of the colleges requiring students to report all scores. Other selective schools, including Harvard, Princeton and the University of Chicago, honor Score Choice. Several colleges say Score Choice is irrelevant because they already cherry-pick the highest individual math, verbal and reading scores from among multiple tests (often called super scoring).

In the past we have found that sometimes students (often encouraged by their parents) take the SAT as early as 9th or 10th grade. This isnota good idea.The more high school math, science, social studies, and English courses completed, the better the score will be.Scoresearnedearlyinhighschoolwillbe lower than those earned in 11th or 12 grade. Since all SATscorestakensinceninthgrade may be required by some colleges and low scores earned early don’t help, students are advised to continue to put off the SAT until later the second semester of the 11th grade. Use the PSAT as it was intended, as a practice SAT.

SAT Update The College Board overhauled the SAT effective with the Class of 2016. Recent research shows that success in college today depends in part on strong critical thinking and analysis skills the redesigned test will seek to better gauge student preparedness for the rigors of college coursework. The changes included going back to the 1600- point composite score based on 800-point math and evidence-based reading and writing sections, and made the essay optional these are intended to better reflect the material students should be learning in high school and improve the SAT’s reliability as an indicator of how prepared applicants are to tackle college work. One big innovation is the way vocabulary is now handled. Rather than test students’ knowledge of obscure words out of context like cruciverbalist, mellifluous, or prestidigitation the focus is on so-called high- utility words that appear in many disciplines, and they’ll be used in a passage. For ex- ample, after reading a selection about popu- lation density that uses the word intense, test-takers might be asked which word has the closest meaning; emotional, concentrated, brilliant or determined.

The revised SAT requires students to draw conclusions by taking account of evidence, to revise and edit text, to analyze data and interpret graphs, and to solve the types of math problems most commonly seen in college courses and the workplace. The revised SAT more closely resembles the ACT, which has been growing in popularity since all colleges started weighting the exams equally in the process. The redesigned SAT last three hours, with an extra 50 minutes allotted for an optional essay in which students analyze a passage and how the author builds an argument. Check the College Board website for more information.

SAT Subject Tests SAT Subject Tests used to be called the SATII’s, and your parents may have known them as the Achievement Tests. They are one-hour tests on subjects studied in high school and are only required by fewer than 50 colleges (the more selective ones). The majority of colleges do not require students to take any SAT subject tests nor do they use them. For those schools that do require them, generally math and a second exam of your choice are required. Only a very small number of colleges (less than five) recommend a third exam so taking more exams isn’t particularly helpful. On any SAT test date, you can choose to take exams in one, two, or three subjects. You cannot, however, take both the SAT Reasoning Test and the SAT Subject Tests on the same day. Most subjects are offered on each SAT test date. The notable exceptions are the Foreign Language with Listening tests. These tests are offered only in November. If Japanese, Korean or Chinese is your native language, you generally cannot substitute this exam for a required SAT Subject Test, since the test is designed for students who have completed three or four years of high school language study. Colleges do not find the sco es earned by native speakers (which are invariably around 800) to be very helpful. Take your SAT Subject Tests in May or June of the year you complete the highest level course in that subject area, or at least no later than fall of 12th grade. If you will be applying to colleges requiring the SAT Subject Tests you will usually do better when your LCS course(s) correspond with the Subject Tests you are planning to take. You may be required to take a specific Subject Test(s) typically required by a department or major.

Since SAT Subject Tests are written at an college level, your score may not be very good after just one year of a subject. If needed, you can retake any Subject Test or select new subjects in the fall of 12th grade. Your counselor or the college website can tell whether schools you are considering require SAT Subject Tests. If you’re not sure where you’re applying, but are strong in an academic area, consider taking a test in that subject at the end of your 11th grade.

SAT Scores

SATscoresareonascalefrom200to800. Approximately half of US college-bound juniorsearnabout500oneachsection.The other half earn lower scores. At LCS, our studentstypicallyearnhigherSATscores. The easiest way to determine how you did on theSATReasoningTestistocheckyourpercentile score. A percentile score judges your performance relative to other students who took the test. Ifyou earn an SATscore at the 50th percentile, it means you scored better than 50 out of 100 typical college-bound students who took the test. In other words, if you lined up 99 students from the lowest (1) to thehighest(99)scores,youwouldbenumber 50 if your score was at the 50th percentile. Don’t confuse percents with percentiles. Percentiles compare you to other test takers. Percentiles on Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish SAT Subject Tests are highly misleading, because they are so often taken by native speakers. As a non-native speaker, do not use the percentiles to judge your performance instead, look at the scores and judge them as you would any other SAT subject. Almost all colleges require an official copy of your SAT scores. When registering for an SAT, you can send your official scores automatically to four colleges at no additional charge. Once the test is scored, they will send the new results, plusall previous SATscores, to the listed colleges. You can opt to send official scores later and you must at some point have your official scores sent Retaking the SAT Students often ask how many times to take the SAT. Generally, the answer is two. Most students show score improvement the second time, averaging 15-20 points on each section. Taking the SAT more than twice will rarely increase scores further. Since LCS students take the PSAT once by the second SAT, it’s really the third time an SAT-type of test has been taken.

SAT Prep Programs

There are an array of books and computer programs available to help prepare for the SAT Reasoning Test. As long as they don’t take away from homework or other activities, using one makes sense. Unless you already are making straight As, don’t spend a large amount of time taking a prep course, especially during the school year. Remember, admission officers say courses and grades are the most important factor considered when making an admission decision. Therefore,LCS counselors cannot recommend lengthy coaching courses, especially if they require a lot of time and effort better spent on schoolwork or other worthwhile activities. There are, of course, valuable test-taking tips and strategies. For example, if an answer to a question near the beginning of a test section seems obviously right, it probably is later in the section, as the questions get more complex, beware. But, don’t spend lots of money on a test prep course to learn the tricks. If you are willing to spend some time preparing for the SAT, there are some free webbased SAT (and ACT) prep programs. Login to MaiaLearning for more information. If you do wish to take a course, research on the SAT shows 20 hours of quality prep time will result in about the same improvement as considerably longer programs. Putting more time into a prep course will detract from important activities such as homework and extracurricular activities. While a test prep company will never tell you this, research has shown that you will get just as much improvement by buying (and using) an SAT prep book than you will by going to a course.

Remember, a change in your SAT Reasoning Test scores may help distinguish you from other applicants but so will success in an especially rigorous course load, involvement in school or community activities, or demonstrating an outstanding talent. If you attend summer school and want to also take an SAT preparation course, go ahead. But don’t go to summer school simply to take an SAT course. It is not worth the expense, and will not impress colleges.

The ACT

The ACT is a three-hour test similar to the SAT. While it used to be that colleges preferred one or the other, all colleges now accept either test. The ACT test consists of five sections En lish, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Science Reasoning, and Writing. Subject test scores range from 1 to 36, with the English, math, and reading tests also providing subscores ranging from 1 to 18. The ACT composite score is the average of all four tests. The optional writing test provides a writing score ranging from 1 to 18 and we strongly urge you to take with Writing. All US colleges accept ACT scores. A few colleges require SAT Subject Test scores in addition to ACT scores. While most students earn equivalent scores on the ACT and the SAT, some students do better on the ACT than the SAT or vice versa. Since the tests are designed to be equivalent, do not expect that your scores will be wildly different between the two tests. Even though the writing test is optional on the ACT, it is still advisable to take it since many colleges require it. Like the SAT, we suggest students to take the ACT alongside the SAT in the spring of 11th grade, as there are variances between the two tests. You can then determine which is the better test to study for and retake in 12th grade. There are also a number of free diagnostic test tools available to you if you’d like to try and determine your stronger test before taking actual tests.

Test of English as a Foreign Language

If English is not your native language, or you are from a country where English is not your official language, you may need to take the TOEFL. (or IELTS, see below). The TOEFL is designed to test language spoken in theclassroom for academic purposes. Since LCS students listen, read, write and speak in academic language every day at school, they usually do well. LCS students often wonder if they should take the TOEFL or IELTS, since many learned to speak both English and another language simultaneously. Although expensive, it is advantageous to take it, because when an admissions officer reviews your application file, the TOEFL score will immediately remind him or her that you were raised speaking another language. That reminder can be an especially helpful excuse if your SAT critical reading and writing scores were low. Talk to your counselor to see if taking the TOEFL makes sense for you. The internet-based TOEFL test, known as the iBT, is designed to focus on integrating language skills. It emphasizes overall ability to communicate in English and includes four sections reading, listening, speaking and writ-ing. Take a free, short practice test online at the TOEFL website after registering to use the site, or pay to take more sophisticated tests. Scores on the TOEFL are from 0 to 0 on each of the four sections, with a total score ranging from 0 to 120. The TOEFL has changed three times in the past 15 years. If you need to take this test, take it during the spring of 11th grade, or early summer before 12th grade, in order to have time to retake it in the fall of 12th grade,if necessary. Your TOEFL score is valid for only two years, so don’t take it too early. Be aware that if you plan to apply to the UK, you must take the IELTS instead of the TOEFL.

International English LanguageTesting System (IELTS)

The IELTS from the UK has gained currency with North American admissions offices. As such, students are at liberty to take the IELTS instead of the TOEFL if they wish, especially if scheduling the TOEFL proves difficult. In Accra the IELTS is offered more often. Test sites include the British Council.

Registering for Admission Tests

Registration information for the SAT, ACT, TOEFL, and IELTS can be found on the counseling website. Each test requires a different procedure. One thing the tests have in common is the high school College Entrance Examination Board (or CEEB code). The LCS CEEB code is 617141.

Registration for the SAT Reasoning and Subjects Tests is done online and links are on the counseling website. You will be asked to register with a user name and password and you will use this same login each time you want to register for a test. You will also log on to the site to get your scores so do not lose your login or password!

You will also register online to take the TOEFL. Many student register and take the TOEFL at the British Council in Accra. You are allowed four free score reports if ordered prior to the test. After receiving your scores you can also order additional reports for a fee online.

On any of the test dates be sure to bring your passport, calculator, and sharpened pencils.

Sending your Official Scores

When you take an SAT, ACT, TOEFL you are the person who receives and owns the scores. Although your counselor receives a copy of your results and adds them to MaiaLearning, most universities do not consider these reports to be “official.

Colleges require you to ask the testing agency to send your scores to them. You can do this at the time you register for the test by logging on to the testing website and paying to have your scores sent. Only you can send your official scores your counselor cannot.